These guitars do more than play music—they push the boundaries of DIY, resulting in amazing instruments that need to be heard and seen.

Helicaster Guitar

Helicaster Guitar

Artist and musician Michael Gaughan built this flying guitar in 2005 using a gas-powered radio-controlled helicopter he purchased off eBay and a slew of electric guitar parts.

Before his project took off, Gaughan spoke with members of a suburban Minnesota RC helicopter group who told him they once launched fireworks from their model aircrafts. This told Gaughan that his helicopter could lift at least 5 pounds safely, so he rounded up the lightest guitar neck, headstock, and bridge he could find. With help from friend Steve Davy, Gaughan pieced together a fully functional 2.5-pound aluminum guitar body for one side of the 'copter, balancing its weight with 2.5 pounds of aluminum on the instrument's opposite side. He then hooked up the entire piece to a wireless radio unit that sends its signal to a guitar amp, so it can produce feedback and noise when it's both flying and being played.

Quad Chopper

Quad Chopper

Gaughan is also the mastermind behind Quad Chopper, a fabulous four-neck spinning instrument built from electric guitar parts, a ball bearing unit, and a used military parachute harness. To make his 5 x 5 x 1–foot propeller-axe turn, Gaughan originally went with a BMX bicycle hub, but the guitar's 200-pound weight made the mechanism unfeasible. Instead, he attached a spinning ball bearing unit to a solid wood base, then bolted it to the back of the parachute harness—chosen because it's made of rip-stop fabric. When Gaughen puts on the harness (which he wears backward), he's essentially wearing the guitar.

All four guitars are wired to the same input jack, producing lots of noise feedback and warbly sound. Gaughan, who plays guitar in the band Brother & Sister, says he can switch off one or more guitars at any given time for a cleaner sound but "I always leave them all on and turn them all the way up."

One of the best things about Quad Chopper: While Gaughan's playing it, audience members can play it too.